Adios, Dora: Netflix is starting to take Viacom shows offline
Dora, Diego, Spongebob, Blue’s Clues and a number of other kids TV shows were taken offline by Netflix this week as the company’s deal with Viacom is expiring. Read more at paidContent »
Janko Roettgers
Janko has been covering all things tech for more than 10 years. His career as a technology journalist began in Germany, where he published a number of books about subjects like the online music revolution and Internet subcultures. He first began contributing to GigaOM in 2007 and joined the staff in 2009. Janko is also the host of GigaOM's Cord Cutters series.
Smule users record one billion songs, generate $12.6 M in revenue in 2012
iOS app maker Smule has been autotuning and auto-rapping the music app genre all the way to a sweet $12.6 milion in revenue. Read more »
Shazam’s new iPad app automatically tags every song you ever listen to
Shazam wants you to turn your iPad into an automated logging device for any type of media playing within reach. Read more »
Netflix may roll out 16 original shows, stand-up comedy specials next year
Netflix continues its competition with HBO by going into the stand-up comedy space. Altogether, the company may launch up to 16 original shows next year. Read more at paidContent »
Soo Meta, the Storify for online video storytelling, launches to the public
Soo Meta redefines video storytelling by turning Storify-like content curation into great-looking video slideshows. The platform even allows producers to add polls and quizzes to their videos. Read more at paidContent »
Say those magic words: Xbox One, Google Glass and the rise of the always-on microphone
photo: visual.dichotomy
Microsoft’s new Xbox One is listening to every word uttered in your living room. But it’s only interested in very few of them . Read more »
Microsoft reveals new Xbox One with live TV guide, media apps and group video Skype
Microsoft announced an new Xbox called Xbox One Tuesday that comes with support for live TV, group video calls via Skype and multi-tasking for entertainment apps. Read more »
What online video and TV fans can expect from Microsoft’s next Xbox
photo: Microsoft
Microsoft is set to announce a new Xbox on Tuesday. Here’s what we know so far about everything related to TV and online video services. Read more »
Pay TV is hurting, and even skeptics now admit cord cutting could be at fault
photo: Jason Rosenberg
Pay TV providers in the US lost subscribers for the first time ever over the 12 months ending in March. Especially alarming is the slowing growth of lower-priced offers. Read more »
NextGuide’s new website turns your friends’ Facebook likes into your TV guide
Ever wondered which movies and TV shows your friends like on Facebook. NextGuide makes it easy to find out – and then find services to stream these flicks. Read more »
Redbox Instant is coming to Google TV soon, Roku up next
Redbox Instant is coming to Google TV devices soon, and the company plans to launch a channel on Roku streaming media players soon after. Read more »
A sneak peek at YouTube’s future as it rolls out new channel design for everyone
YouTube’s new channel design will roll out to everyone in early June, and the site’s designers are already busy working on big things to come. Read more »
WebRTC is growing fast: soon to surpass one billion devices
Plugin-free video chat in the browser is becoming a reality quickly: Developers can soon reach more than one billion browsers and devices with the protocol, according to Google’s Justin Uberti. Read more »
RapidShare lays off most of its staff as it struggles to find new business model
RapidShare used to be the world’s most popular one-click hoster, used by millions to store and share files. Now, it has to lay off 75 percent of its staff. Read more »
The road less traveled: How Google does Streetview for the world’s oceans
Google and the Catlin Seaview Survey are working as fast as they can to map the world’s coral reefs in Google Streetview. But the project’s founder fears he may be too late. Read more »
How Google Music wants to take on Spotify, Rdio and Rhapsody
Google launched its own music subscription service Wednesday. Currently, it’s not very different from all the other services out there. So how does it want to compete? Read more at paidContent »
Google TV will receive Android 4.2.2 update as well as latest version of Chrome
Google TV will finally be upgraded from Android 3.2 aka Honeycomb when it receives the next major system update later this year. The new version will be based on Android 4.2.2. Read more »
Watch out, Ustream and Co: YouTube is expanding its live streaming offering
YouTube is opening up its live streaming to almost everyone: The service will allow every channel owner with at least 1000 subscribers to go live. Read more »
Google officially launches its music subscription service at Google I/O
Google’s Spotify competitor is official. The company unveiled the new service at its Google I/O developer conference Wednesday. Read more »
Google I/O statshot: 900 million Android devices activated
photo: Janko Roettgers
Google tends to use its annual Google I/O conference to drop a bunch of stats about its achievements – and 2013 is no different. Check out key data on Android devices, Google Play downloads and more. Read more »
Reports: Google will launch music subscription service at I/O
photo: paidContent / Amanda Natividad
Google is set to launch a music subscription service at its Google I/O developer conference Wednesday, according to multiple reports. The service will compete with Spotify and similar services. Read more at paidContent »
German online publishers’ anti-adblock campaign backfires
A public campaign by some of the biggest German online publishers against ad-blocking software may have backfired, as downloads of one popular ad-blocking product have more than doubled. Read more at paidContent »
That’s a lot of videos: YouTube now responsible for 17% of home Internet traffic
photo: Sesame Workshop
One out of six bytes sent to households in the US and Canada is part of a YouTube video: The service’s share of residential downstream traffic has been growing. Read more »
Netflix makes changes to public API after “Streamageddon” backlash
Figuring out which titles are going expire soon on Netflix just got a lot harder: The company changed its public API Monday night to prevent this information from popping up on third-party websites. Read more at paidContent »
Where to watch Google I/O 2013 live online
Didn’t get a ticket for Google I/O? No worries, most of the event will be streamed live online. Read more »
How ABC plans to use live streaming and the cloud to challenge Aereo
ABC is going to offer iOS users in New York and Philadelphia a 24-hour live stream of its programming this week. It’s the first time a broadcaster has embraced live streaming. Read more »
Pay to play: Can YouTube succeed with its paid channel subscriptions?
YouTube started to offer paid subscriptions to select channels this week. But are people actually going to pay for their YouTube videos? Read more at paidContent »
Boxfish lands on Android, has big plans for real-time TV data
Boxfish’s new Android app lets you search in real time for topics on TV. The data used to power the app could one day also make your DVR smarter. Read more »
YouTube launches its paid subscription channels with select partners
YouTube’s long-rumored paid channels are live: The Google-owned service started its new subscription offering with select partners Thursday. Read more at paidContent »
How Reed Hastings’ busy 2005 winter vacation led Netflix to embrace big data
Netflix CEO thought he could do a better job at developing a recommendation algorithm than his engineers. He failed – and the episode shaped the way the company has looked at data ever since. Read more »
Slacker wants to take a page out of Muve Music’s playbook with telco partnerships
Slacker has seen some solid growth after its relaunch in February – now, the company wants to add millions of paying subscribers with a carrier partnership. Read more at paidContent »
Big Hollywood has no business being on Kickstarter, says Hollywood insider
Zach Braff is raising money for his next movie on Kickstarter. That’s wrong, argues writer, producer and director Ken Levine. Read more at paidContent »
Here comes Dinosaur Train: Roku gets PBS and PBS Kids channels
PBS is landing on the Roku with two dedicated channels, which will bring content from shows like Dinosaur Train, Curious George, Frontline and Nova to the media streamer. Read more »
Why the time has come for Android @Home to finally make a splash
Android @Home has been missing in action ever since it was announced in 2011. There’s a good chance that this will change at next week’s Google I/O conference. Read more »
BitTorrent introduces Bundles to help creators make money with file sharing
BitTorrent wants more artists to give away stuff to file sharers – which is why they just gave those artists an option to also sell stuff to file sharers. Read more at paidContent »
Samsung acquires second-screen startup MOVL
Samsung has picked up MOVL, a startup known for smart TV games and its TV app development platform. Read more »
Big Bird, Caillou and Sonic could be part of YouTube’s subscription slate
YouTube is reportedly close to launching paid channel subscriptions on its site – and we’ve found a number of clues that hint at kids content being part of this initiative. Read more at paidContent »
Vimeo on demand will exclusively distribute new Kristen Bell movie
Vimeo on demand is getting a new movie starring Kristen Bell as a day-and-date release, with the film premiering online the same day it comes out in theaters. Read more at paidContent »
Take that, Apple TV: Smart TVs twice as popular as dedicated streaming boxes
Roku boxes and Apple TV streaming devices may be on everyone’s mind, but smart TVs with internet apps are actually a lot more popular. Read more »
YouTube users now watch 6 billion hours of videos a month
Boy, people really do like watching YouTube videos: The service now streams more than 6 billion hours of video every month. Read more »
